Burned Out - World Bank Projects Leave Trail Of Misery Aroun
Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2015 9:21 amBurned Out - World Bank Projects Leave Trail Of Misery Around Globe
[ http://projects.huffingtonpost.com/worl ... lobe-kenya ]
By Jacob Kushner, Anthony Langat, Sasha Chavkin and Michael Hudson Thursday, April 16, 2015, 12:01 am EDT
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QUOTE: “I don’t understand why they chase us like this” — Selly Rotich, mother of five, said as she sat outside her scorched home.
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What Is The World Bank? The World Bank Group is the globe’s most prestigious development lender, bankrolling hundreds of government projects each year in pursuit of its high-minded mission: to combat the scourge of poverty by backing new transit systems, power plants, dams and other projects it believes will help boost the fortunes of poor people.
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EXCERPT:
In developing countries around the globe, forest dwellers, poor villagers and other vulnerable populations claim the World Bank — the planet’s oldest and most powerful development lender — has left a trail of misery.
Dams, power plants, conservation programs and other projects sponsored by the World Bank have pushed millions of people out of their homes or off their lands or threatened their livelihoods. In some cases, governments supported by World Bank money have arrested, beaten and even killed people who objected to being forced from their homes, according to interviews and official complaints.
They’ve been put at risk because the bank has repeatedly violated its own rules for protecting people who are in the path of development projects, an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, The Huffington Post, The GroundTruth Project and other ICIJ media partners has found.
This story is the first in a series about what can happen to people on the ground when the World Bank bankrolls big projects. Other stories published today by HuffPost and ICIJ include an overview detailing the reporting team’s key findings, [ http://projects.huffingtonpost.com/worl ... -abandoned ] a look at mass evictions in Ethiopia tied to a World Bank project [ http://projects.huffingtonpost.com/worl ... s-ethiopia ] and an examination of a Peruvian gold mine backed by the bank’s private-sector investment arm. [ http://projects.huffingtonpost.com/worl ... ction-peru ] ICIJ and its partners will publish more stories in the coming weeks based on reporting from India, Honduras, Kosovo and other countries.
The World Bank has admitted “shortcomings” in its protections for people displaced by projects the bank supports. It says it is working to improve its policies and how it enforces them. The bank also says protecting people in the way of big projects is a “cornerstone” of its efforts to “end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity.”
In Kenya, the World Bank’s in-house Inspection Panel found the bank violated its policies by failing to do enough to protect the Sengwer, an indigenous minority group in Kenya’s western forests that includes Chepkemoi and her family.
The report, released last year, concluded the bank wasn’t directly to blame for the evictions targeted at the Sengwer, but said the bank might have helped prevent abuses against them if it had enforced its own rules — including the requirement that its borrowers respect the land rights of indigenous peoples.
[ http://ewebapps.worldbank.org/apps/ip/P ... 20(English).pdf ]
MORE:
[ http://projects.huffingtonpost.com/worl ... lobe-kenya ]
[ http://projects.huffingtonpost.com/worl ... lobe-kenya ]
By Jacob Kushner, Anthony Langat, Sasha Chavkin and Michael Hudson Thursday, April 16, 2015, 12:01 am EDT
- - - - - -
QUOTE: “I don’t understand why they chase us like this” — Selly Rotich, mother of five, said as she sat outside her scorched home.
- - - - -
What Is The World Bank? The World Bank Group is the globe’s most prestigious development lender, bankrolling hundreds of government projects each year in pursuit of its high-minded mission: to combat the scourge of poverty by backing new transit systems, power plants, dams and other projects it believes will help boost the fortunes of poor people.
- - - - - -
EXCERPT:
In developing countries around the globe, forest dwellers, poor villagers and other vulnerable populations claim the World Bank — the planet’s oldest and most powerful development lender — has left a trail of misery.
Dams, power plants, conservation programs and other projects sponsored by the World Bank have pushed millions of people out of their homes or off their lands or threatened their livelihoods. In some cases, governments supported by World Bank money have arrested, beaten and even killed people who objected to being forced from their homes, according to interviews and official complaints.
They’ve been put at risk because the bank has repeatedly violated its own rules for protecting people who are in the path of development projects, an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, The Huffington Post, The GroundTruth Project and other ICIJ media partners has found.
This story is the first in a series about what can happen to people on the ground when the World Bank bankrolls big projects. Other stories published today by HuffPost and ICIJ include an overview detailing the reporting team’s key findings, [ http://projects.huffingtonpost.com/worl ... -abandoned ] a look at mass evictions in Ethiopia tied to a World Bank project [ http://projects.huffingtonpost.com/worl ... s-ethiopia ] and an examination of a Peruvian gold mine backed by the bank’s private-sector investment arm. [ http://projects.huffingtonpost.com/worl ... ction-peru ] ICIJ and its partners will publish more stories in the coming weeks based on reporting from India, Honduras, Kosovo and other countries.
The World Bank has admitted “shortcomings” in its protections for people displaced by projects the bank supports. It says it is working to improve its policies and how it enforces them. The bank also says protecting people in the way of big projects is a “cornerstone” of its efforts to “end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity.”
In Kenya, the World Bank’s in-house Inspection Panel found the bank violated its policies by failing to do enough to protect the Sengwer, an indigenous minority group in Kenya’s western forests that includes Chepkemoi and her family.
The report, released last year, concluded the bank wasn’t directly to blame for the evictions targeted at the Sengwer, but said the bank might have helped prevent abuses against them if it had enforced its own rules — including the requirement that its borrowers respect the land rights of indigenous peoples.
[ http://ewebapps.worldbank.org/apps/ip/P ... 20(English).pdf ]
MORE:
[ http://projects.huffingtonpost.com/worl ... lobe-kenya ]